Marisol Rojas
I propose as my doctoral project a theoretical-practical investigation based
on the testimonies of migrant women who have crossed the northern and southern
borders of Mexico to get to the United States.
According to data from
the Economic and Social Affairs Department of the U.N., there are currently
around 232 million international migrants in the world. Since 1990, the number
of international migrants in the Global North has risen by approximately 53
million (65%). The percentage of migrant women has oscillated around 52% in the
Global North. Today, approximately six out of ten international migrants reside
in developed regions (United Nations: 2013,1). These statistics prove that the
experience of immigration is determined by gender to a considerable extent.
Approaching the process
of female immigration through art will allow broader awareness and human
perspective on this phenomenon, in addition to greater visibility. Investigation
across regions based on womens testimonies will allow me to learn, through their
personal experiences, about the factors that influence female immigration and about
the problems those women face in the reassessment of immigration policies in
the region.
I consider that my proposal is
relevant because political art can open a path of social sensitization that
projects a more democratic future in relation to the progress of human rights.
In addition, a critical social project based on the development of agonistic artistic interventions permits
the visualization in public spaces of subjects and issues that the dominant
culture tends to overshadow or obscure (Mouffe: 191, 2007).
My project draws on the reflections
of Judith Butler regarding the fact that we live in a time in which different
forms of violence, including those that are present in the immigration process,
must be addressed from a critical perspective, particularly when legislation
and the courts have proven insufficient to resolve this type of crisis. There
are marked differentiations between people and their lives, in which some are
perceived as worthier than others. Among those lives that are considered
unworthy are those of migrant women who are members of a vulnerable group. Latin
America faces a permanent crisis related to economics, lack of security and limited
opportunities, coupled with the fact that many of its institutions have lost
credibility.
From my perspective,
the articulation of artistic practices with theoretical research influences the
meaning and social role of art. These practices are more effective in their impact
on audiences because the artists create contents that are activated as critical
social vehicles in specific situations. In this context, new media takes on a
key role in artistic expression, since its materiality and its characteristics
facilitate the dissemination and expansion of images and content. The
contributions of art at the intersection between traditional disciplines and
new media in gender studies foster a new configuration of aesthetics, images,
and discourses in the public sphere.
I believe that the Media Study
program would provide an ideal context in which to develop my doctoral project,
tentatively titled Body, Displacement and Exclusion: Migrant Women in America. I
propose a theoretical-practical research project that will result in a
multisensory installation conceived--through the intersection of printmaking,
video and sound design--as an integral work based on interviews and testimonies
of migrant women. In addition, social media platforms will be used to expand
the communicative scope of the project, sharing photographic, audio and textual
documentation.
The
main focus of my project consists in the notion of corporeal displacement, a concept that will be addressed through
performance and its spatial materialization. Some of the questions that I
anticipate addressing through my research are: How are the issues related to
migration made visible in new media? What strategies are artists using and what
is the audiences reception of them? What are the situations experienced by
migrant women? How do we approach corporeal displacement in the analysis of
unregulated immigration processes? How can we build artistic practices that
promote the acknowledgment of migrant womens human rights in the public
sphere?
The central issue
addressed by my research project is that of the constants in the female immigration
process, such as exclusion, violence, problems regarding their places of
origin, the pursuit of a better life, separation and expectations. I will show
how power relations are directly
articulated through the displacement of bodies (Foucault: 184, 1987). I consider
that it is possible to develop a project in which graphics and new media
intersect in order to make visible the bodys transit, its traces, and its narrations.
There
are a number of significant artistic works that address the issue of
immigration through new media. Some examples are Performing the Border (1999) by Ursula Biermann, which addresses
gender conditions in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Carne
y Arena (Meat and Sand; 2017) by Alejandro González, which explores the human
condition of immigrants and refugees; and Sanctuary
(2016) by Andrea Bowers, which delves into the story of an undocumented immigrant
who was separated from her son. While these works constitute valuable contributions
to the visualization of issues related to immigration, my project differs in
that it proposes to combine academic research and artistic production, and to specifically
address the issue of women who have crossed two borders. My proposal, unlike
others, seeks to focus more deeply on the conditions experienced by migrant women
in their transit, through a combination of research and an installation.
If I am accepted into the program, I would like to work
with professor Sarah Elder, whom I met in the fall of last year, as my advisor.
Her experience in documentary filmmaking and her work with native communities
will be invaluable in orienting my approach to the migrant community. I have also
had the fortune to meet Paige Sarlin, who could enrich my research through her experience
with new media, activism, aesthetics, and politics. In addition, I have had
contact with Professor Adele Henderson of the Art Department, who has extensive
knowledge of printing techniques, and with Professor Camilo Trumper from the
History Department, who has studied political art and the public sphere in
Latin America.
I am interested in the Media Study doctoral program
because it offers a plan focused on creative processes in new media
complemented by research. I also value the possibility of having the results of
my project make an impact on the social sphere in Mexico and the United States,
through a binational project on the issue of female immigration. The program
also stands out for me because of the interdisciplinary relation it establishes
between departments, which makes it possible to do research and creative work
with the support of specialists in different fields and with different visions.
I consider that I can
contribute a transnational vision to the Media Study Department through my dual
professional formation as a Mexican artist and researcher. I am interested in
establishing a dialogue between Latin American and U.S. authors and perspectives
with respect to issues of immigration, while also working from a personal
perspective in my artistic creation.
I consider that I have sufficient
experience for the realization of the doctoral project, as a result of my artistic practice in
traditional media and its intersection with new media, as well as my academic reflection
on contemporary art and female migration.
I also have an outstanding record of academic support for studies in Mexico, the U.S. and Spain, since I have
received several scholarships and grants for the realization of my undergraduate and
masters studies: at the Polytechnic University of Valencia,
Spain from 2008 to 2009; for tuition
and
research
at the Universidad
Iberoamericana (UIA) from 2016 to 2018; for
a research residency
at Hunter College in New
York in 2017 and from the National Council for Culture and the
Arts of Mexico (CONACYT) from 2016 to 2018.
In
addition, in the context of artistic creation, my graphic
piece titled Voces de mujeres (Womens Voices)
won first place in the International Printmaking Biennial of Latin America and
the Caribbean in 2017 and will be exhibited in Ecuador, Cuba, El
Salvador, and Mexico in 2019.
I also have
experience in curatorial work related to political and experimental art in
Mexico in the 1970s, through
my collaboration on the exhibition No
calles, Manifiéstate (Dont
Be Silent,
Act) inaugurated in the
Andrea Pozzo Gallery of the
Universidad Iberoamericana in October 2017. I am currently participating in a curatorial
project on camp and queer cinema coordinated
by Dr. Ignacio Prado Feliú for
the Cineteca Nacional, I
have also taught courses on
drawing, history and Latin American
art theory.
I was part of the Organizing Committee of the First
International Symposium on Printmaking in Latin America and the Caribbean that took place in November 2018, an
academic and artistic encounter in
which various educational and cultural institutions from Latin America
participated, and which included
the exhibit Demián Flores: Graphic Itineraries that took place in the Museo
Nacional de la Estampa (National
Museum of Printmaking).
Finally, I believe that with the completion of my doctoral studies in the Media Study
Department of the University of Buffalo, I could make a significant contribution to my country through the study of new media
from a binational perspective. In addition, I would
make a contribution to the documentation
and visibilization of the collective
memory of the migrant women who have crossed
the southern and northern borders
of Mexico, creating greater awareness and recognition in Mexican society of their
situation, from a perspective that focuses on them as human beings rather than as mere
statistics.
Bibliography
Butler, Judith. Precarious
Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London and New
York: Verso, 2004.
Foucault, Michel. Las crisis de la razón. Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 1987.
Kristeva, Julia. Strangers to Ourselves. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Mouffe, Chantal. Agonistics:
Thinking the World Politically,
London and New York, Verso,
2013.
Mouffe, Chantal. Prácticas
artísticas y democracia agonística. Barcelona: Museu
d'Art
Contemporani, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2007.
United Nations. La migración mundial en
cifras. Una contribución conjunta del DAES y la
OCDE
al Diálogo de Alto Nivel de las Naciones Unidas sobre la Migración y el
Desarrollo, October 3-4, 2013.